Identifying and Advocating Best Practices in the Criminal Justice System. A Texas-Centric Examination of Current Conditions, Reform Initiatives, and Emerging Issues with a Special Emphasis on Capital Punishment.

Thursday, 06 December 2012

Ohio Case of Ronald Post Gets Clemency Hearing

A condemned obese killer should be spared because of lingering doubts
about his “legal and moral guilt” and the conduct of defense and
prosecution lawyers at trial, his attorneys told the state Parole Board
on Thursday in a bid for clemency focusing on his innocence, not his
weight.

Death row inmate Ronald Post is fighting his January execution
on the grounds that he is so fat he can’t be humanely executed and will
suffer cruel and unusual punishment as the state struggles to find his
veins or give him enough drugs to put someone his size to death.

That argument is in the federal courts, while the 450-pound Post
pursues an innocence claim unrelated to his weight before the parole
board. The panel considers requests for mercy before making a
recommendation to Gov. John Kasich, who has the final say.

Attorneys
for Post made presentations to the parole board Thursday followed by
prosecutors from Lorain County and the attorney general’s office. The
state says the hearing could last two days.

And:

The long-held presumption that Post confessed to the murder to
several people has been falsely exaggerated, Post’s attorneys argue.
Post admitted involvement in the crime as the get-away driver to a
police informant but did not admit to the killing.

“Sure ain’t no murderer,” Post told that informant, according to Post’s clemency filing.

Doubt
about Post’s guilt lingers because of the involvement of two other men
in the shooting, Post’s attorneys argue. Post pleaded no contest to the
crime on the advice of his attorney in expectation he would receive a
life sentence, the attorneys argue. Even after his plea, he told a
psychologist “he was not a murderer.”

The attorneys also argue
that prosecutors misrepresented to the judge that Post had confessed to
sole involvement in Vantz’s death.

“Lingering doubts exist about
the degree of Ronald Post’s legal and moral guilt,” public defenders Joe
Wilhelm and Rachel Troutman told the board in a written request for
mercy.

“The death penalty should be reserved for cases where
proof of guilt is reliable and the legal system produced a just result,”
they said. “Neither criteria is met in this case.”

At about 450 pounds, Ohio death row inmate Ronald Post is so fat that
his executioners won't be able to find veins in his arms or legs for
the lethal injection, and he might even break the death chamber gurney,
his lawyers say.

If the state is forced to use a backup method that involves injecting
the drugs directly into muscle, the process could require multiple
doses over several hours or even days and result in a grueling and
painful end, they say.

Post, who gained close to 200 pounds on death row, is trying
to stave off execution Jan. 16 for the 1983 killing of a motel clerk
during a robbery, arguing that because of his obesity, an attempt to put
him to death would amount to cruel and unusual punishment.

State officials say Post, 53, can be humanely executed under both
Ohio's usual method and the untested backup procedure. The warden at the
prison where the death chamber is situated even tested the gurney by
piling 540 pounds of weights on it for two hours.

Post has not presented "sufficient evidence demonstrating that his
obesity or other physical conditions will present a substantial risk
that his execution cannot be conducted in a humane and dignified
manner," Assistant Attorney General Charles Wille said in court papers.

A federal judge in Columbus will hold a hearing on Post's claim later this month.

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The StandDown Texas Project

The StandDown Texas Project was organized in 2000 to advocate a moratorium on executions and a state-sponsored review of Texas' application of the death penalty.
To stand down is to go off duty temporarily, especially to review safety procedures.

Steve Hall

Project Director Steve Hall was chief of staff to the Attorney General of Texas from 1983-1991; he was an administrator of the Texas Resource Center from 1993-1995. He has worked for the U.S. Congress and several Texas legislators. Hall is a former journalist.